Deal Town Council acknowledges that the planet is facing an imminent existential threat from climate change and biodiversity loss. The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's October 2018 Special Report attribute rising global temperatures to human activity, and state that limiting global warming to 1.5C degrees is necessary to avoid the very worst climate impacts. This will require global greenhouse gas emissions to halve by 2030 and drop to near zero emissions by 2050. Failing to achieve this will result in catastrophic impacts for humanity. In short, we now have just ten years to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Humanity is currently falling far short of that target. Our government has committed to the UK becoming Net Zero by 2050 - to achieve this we need to take radical action at every level - personal, parish, town, district and county, as well as nationally and internationally.

In light of this unprecedented climate emergency, Deal Town Council has committed to becoming carbon neutral in our operations by 2025. As a small council, we can be ambitious in our time scale for achieving carbon neutral status - this will ultimately assist the UK to reach our national target. We have audited our Scope 1 emissions and are taking action to assess our Scope 2 and 3 emissions and the steps we need to take to reduce them. We are putting climate action at the centre of Deal Town Council's work, with officers directed to include environmental impact assessments in their reports and we are seeking to influence and encourage Deal residents, businesses and organisations in the town to reduce their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.